In this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:
Animal
means any live vertebrate creature, domestic or wild, excluding man.
Animal control officer
means persons designated by the city as the primary enforcement officers of animals and for the enforcement of sections of the state statutes pertaining to the care and control of animals.
Animal shelter
means any facility operated by a county or municipal agency or its authorized agents for the purpose of impounding or caring for animals held under the authority of this chapter.
At large
means not under the control of the owner, or the persons acting for the owner.
Bite
means any abrasion, puncture, or tear of the skin actually or suspected of being caused by the teeth or claws of an animal.
Cat
means a member of the feline family.
Dangerous animal
means any warm-blooded mammal which is known to carry or be susceptible to the rabies virus and which cannot be effectively vaccinated against that virus with any vaccine approved by the department of state health services. A dangerous animal includes any hybrid animal or any wildlife which has attacked a human, killed or maimed a domestic animal, or which is apprehended or observed unrestrained. However, this definition shall not apply to dangerous dogs as addressed in article 3.07 of this chapter.
Dangerous dog
means any dog that:
(1) 
When unprovoked, inflicts severe injury or death to a person, or bites or attacks a person on public or private property; or
(2) 
Has killed or severely injured a domestic animal without provocation while off the owner’s property.
Dog
means a member of the Canis familiaris family.
Harboring
means the act of keeping and caring for an animal or of providing premises to which the animal returns for food, shelter, or care for a period of ten (10) days or longer.
Impound
means to place an animal in the city animal shelter, or the taking into custody of an animal for purposes of transportation to the city animal shelter.
Livestock
means horses, mules, donkeys, cattle, goats, sheep, and swine, regardless of age, sex or breed.
Owner
means any person owning, keeping, possessing, harboring or maintaining a dog or other animal.
Poultry
includes any chicken, duck, turkey, goose, guinea fowl, peafowl, pigeon, or other similar animal commonly classified as poultry.
Proper enclosure
means a house or building, or in the case of a fence or a structure/pen which must be at least six (6) feet in height. The structure/pen must also have a minimum area of seventy-two (72) square feet. The fence or structure/pen must form an enclosure suitable to prevent entry of young children and must be locked and secured such that a dog cannot climb, dig, jump, or otherwise escape of its own volition. The enclosure shall be securely locked at all times. The structure/pen shall have secure sides to prevent the potentially dangerous dog from escaping from the enclosure. The structure/pen shall provide protection from the elements for the potentially dangerous dog. The animal control department may require a fence higher than six (6) feet or require a secure top and/or a secure bottom to the structure/pen if the need is demonstrated.
Public nuisance
means any animal or animals which:
(1) 
Molests passersby or passing vehicles.
(2) 
Attacks other animals.
(3) 
Trespasses on school grounds.
(4) 
Is repeatedly at large.
(5) 
Damages private or public property.
(6) 
Barks, whines or howls in an excessive, continuous or untimely fashion.
(7) 
Has bitten two (2) or more people.
(8) 
Has been impounded three (3) or more times in a twelve-month period.
Quarantine
means to detain or isolate on account of suspected contagion.
Registered dangerous dog
means any dog which, when unprovoked, inflicts a severe bite to a person, charges or approaches a person upon the streets, sidewalks, or any public or private property in an apparent attitude of attack such that the dog will cause physical injury to that person.
Severe attack
means an attack in which the dog repeatedly bites or vigorously shakes its victim, and the victim, or a person intervening, has difficulty terminating the attack.
Severe bite
means a puncture or laceration made by any animal’s teeth which breaks the skin, resulting in a degree of trauma which would cause most prudent and reasonable people to seek medical care for treatment to the wound, without consideration of rabies prevention alone.
Vaccination
means an antirabies vaccination, using a type of vaccine approved by the city’s public health officer.
Veterinarian,
unless otherwise indicated, means any veterinarian licensed to practice in the state which provides clinical facilities and houses animals or birds for dental, medical or surgical treatment. A veterinary hospital may have adjacent to it, or in conjunction with it, or as an integral part of it, pens, stalls, cages, or kennels for quarantine, observation or boarding.
Wild animal
means any live monkey (nonhuman primate), raccoon, skunk, fox, snake, leopard, panther, tiger, lion, lynx, or any animal which can normally be found in the wild state.
(1) 
Exotic species.
Any animal born or whose natural habitat is outside the continental United States excluding nonvenomous reptiles and fish.
(2) 
Exotic livestock/reptiles.
Any species classified as exotic livestock by the state animal health commission.
(Ordinance 976, art. 2, adopted 4/23/96; 1972 Code, sec. 4-1; Ordinance adopting 2023 Code)
Wherever in this chapter acts are prohibited and are made or declared to be unlawful, an offense or a misdemeanor, or wherever in this chapter the doing of any act is required or the failure to do any act is declared to be unlawful, the violation of any such provision shall be punishable by a fine in accordance with the general penalty provided in section 1.01.009 of this code for each offense. Each day any such violation shall continue will constitute a separate offense.
(Ordinance 976, art. 9, adopted 4/23/96; 1972 Code, sec. 4-46; Ordinance adopting 2023 Code)
Every owner, caretaker or user of any animal within the city limits shall be required to observe the following rules, regulations, terms and conditions in connection with the care, keeping and using of such animals; violation will be unlawful.
(1) 
No owner shall fail to provide his animal with sufficient good and wholesome food and water, proper shelter and protection from the weather, veterinary care when needed to prevent suffering and with care and treatment.
(2) 
No person shall beat, cruelly treat, torment, overload, overwork or otherwise abuse an animal, or cause/instigate to permit any dogfight, cockfight, bullfight or other combat between animals or between animals and humans.
(3) 
No owner of an animal shall abandon said animal.
(4) 
No person except a licensed veterinarian shall crop a dog’s ears.
(5) 
Every keeper of any pet shall confine the same in an enclosure sufficient to prevent their running at large, and such enclosure shall be maintained in a clean and sanitary condition at all times and an approved insecticide shall be used as often as necessary to maintain sanitary conditions. All enclosures in which such animals are kept and ground upon which same is situated shall be kept and maintained in a clean and sanitary condition, and all fences surrounding such lot where animals are kept and the feed troughs and water troughs with which such animals are fed and watered shall be free from any projection or thing whereon or whereby such animals may be injured.
(6) 
All animals shall be fed with a quality good, wholesome food sufficient to keep them in a well-nourished condition, and such food shall be served to such animals in a clean, sanitary manner.
(7) 
All animals shall be provided with pure, clean water in sufficient quantities at all times.
(8) 
No sick or crippled animal shall be worked or used.
(9) 
It shall be unlawful for any person to stake, tie or hobble any animal on any lot which he does not own.
(Ordinance 976, art. 3, adopted 4/23/96; 1972 Code, sec. 4-2)
(a) 
Dogs and cats.
It shall be unlawful for any person to keep more than four (4) cats or four (4) dogs or combination thereof, more than six (6) months old, on premises within the city limits, and a minimum area of at least two hundred (200) square feet of enclosed pen or yard shall be provided for each of the one (1) to four (4) animals.
(b) 
Other animals.
No more than four (4) of any other type of animal, bird (non-poultry) or reptile more than six (6) months old shall be kept in any residentially zoned area of the city.
(c) 
Exemption for existing poultry.
Upon the effective date of the first reading of this ordinance amendment [April 9, 1996], residents with preexisting poultry will be limited to no more than twenty (20) birds. Residents keeping poultry not existing previous to the effective date of the ordinance will be limited to no more than eight (8) birds.
(Ordinance 976, art. 3, adopted 4/23/96; Ordinance 1114, sec. 1, adopted 8/10/10; 1972 Code, sec. 4-3; Ordinance adopting 2023 Code)
The animal control officer or police officer is authorized to:
(1) 
Kill by an appropriate or available means an animal which poses an imminent danger to a person or to property when a real and apparent necessity exists for the destruction of such animal; or
(2) 
Impound or destroy an animal which is diseased and endangers the health of persons or other animals.
(Ordinance 976, art. 3, adopted 4/23/96; 1972 Code, sec. 4-4)
(a) 
It shall be unlawful for any person to keep within the corporate limits of the city any dog which has vicious propensities or which has evidenced a disposition to attack human beings or domestic animals.
(b) 
Provided, however, that the provisions of this section shall not apply to the keeping of a police dog which is under the supervision and control of a police officer pursuant to authorization by the chief of police.
(Ordinance 976, art. 3, adopted 4/23/96; 1972 Code, sec. 4-5)
Any person who shall harbor or keep on his premises, or in or about his premises, or premises under his control, any dog which, by loud or unusual barking or howling, shall cause the peace and quiet of the neighborhood or the occupants of the adjacent premises to be disturbed, or reasonably liable to be disturbed, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
(Ordinance 976, art. 3, adopted 4/23/96; 1972 Code, sec. 4-6)
It shall be unlawful for the owner or harborer of any female dog in heat to allow such dog to run at large in the city, or keep or maintain such animal in a public place. The owner or harborer of any female dog in heat shall keep such dog in a firm enclosure to prevent other dogs from entering the enclosure and prevent such female dog from running at large, either off or on the premises of the owner or harborer.
(Ordinance 976, art. 3, adopted 4/23/96; 1972 Code, sec. 4-7)
(a) 
No person shall leave in any place accessible to birds, dogs, cats or other such animals with the intent to kill or harm such animals any poisonous substance which has in any manner been treated with any poisonous substance.
(b) 
This section is not to be construed to prevent police officers, the animal control officer or his assistants from killing animals when entitled so to do by the statutes of the state or by any ordinance of the city.
(Ordinance 976, art. 3, adopted 4/23/96; 1972 Code, sec. 4-10)
No person shall hinder, resist or oppose the animal control officer or any police officer in the performance of their duties under this chapter or conceal or secrete any unlicensed dog or cat from any such officer or person.
(Ordinance 976, art. 3, adopted 4/23/96; 1972 Code, sec. 4-11)
(a) 
Animal control officers, when acting in the course and scope of their employment, shall be and are hereby authorized to carry on their persons or in city vehicles loaded tranquilizer guns approved by the director for animal control and not on violation of any provision of the Texas Penal Code or other applicable state law.
(b) 
Each animal control officer shall receive initial and recurrent training in the use of any type of tranquilizer gun approved by the director, in order to establish and assure satisfactory proficiency in the use of such weapons.
(Ordinance 976, art. 3, adopted 4/23/96; 1972 Code, sec. 4-12)
Any animal impounded or found at large within the city may be destroyed by an animal control officer upon determination that such animal has been injured or is sick and in such a state that its recovery is seriously in doubt or that such animal is sick and endangers the health of other animals or persons, or if such animal is suspected of having rabies or manifesting a disposition to bite or attack when found at large.
(Ordinance 976, art. 3, adopted 4/23/96; 1972 Code, sec. 4-13)
(a) 
Any false statement in a rabies certification or an application for an animal permit issued for such animal shall subject such animal to being impounded in accordance with the rules and regulations set out in this chapter.
(b) 
Any person who knowingly makes a false statement in any application, affidavit or other document required by this chapter or any regulation prescribed hereby shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor.
(Ordinance 976, art. 3, adopted 4/23/96; 1972 Code, sec. 4-14)
(a) 
Noisy animals.
No person shall willfully or knowingly keep or harbor on his premises or elsewhere any animal or fowl of any kind that makes or creates an unreasonable disturbance of the neighbors or the occupants of adjacent premises or persons living in the vicinity thereof, or suffer or permit such animal to make or create disturbing noises by howling, barking, bawling, crowing, or otherwise. A person shall be deemed to have willfully and knowingly violated the terms of this section if such person shall have been notified by the animal control officer or any police officer of such disturbance and shall have failed or refused for a period of twenty-four (24) hours to correct such disturbance and prevent its recurrence.
(b) 
Obnoxious odors.
It shall be unlawful for any person to maintain any animal or fowl in such a manner that residents of adjacent or nearby property are subject to obnoxious odors.
(c) 
Animals trespassing on or damaging property.
It shall be unlawful for any person to maintain any animal in any area which constitutes a nuisance by reason of repeated trespasses on public property, attacks on other animals, or damage to public or private property.
(d) 
Animals running at large.
It shall be unlawful for any person raising, owning or keeping any animal, dog, cat, fowl or reptile to willfully suffer or permit any such creature to run at large upon the public streets, avenues, alleys, parks or other public property of the city or to willfully suffer or permit any animal, dog, cat, fowl or reptile to run at large or to go upon any premises owned or in possession of, or under the control of, any person in the city.
(e) 
Keeping livestock.
It shall be unlawful to keep or maintain livestock within the city limits. Keeping of said animals shall be deemed a public nuisance.
(f) 
Exemption for keeping livestock; allowing livestock to be at large.
(1) 
It shall be unlawful for any person to keep, or cause to be kept, for any purpose whatever, any livestock within the city; provided, however, any owner of any unplatted lands located within the city exceeding ten (10) acres in area and all owned by the owner of any livestock kept thereon shall be exempt from this prohibition.
(2) 
It shall be unlawful for any person to allow any livestock owned by him or in his custody to be at large within the city.
(g) 
Violations declared nuisance.
In addition to the foregoing conduct constituting a misdemeanor, the same shall also be deemed a public nuisance. It shall be unlawful for the owner of any animal to suffer or permit such animal to be or remain a public nuisance as defined herein.
(Ordinance 976, art. 3, adopted 4/23/96; 1972 Code, sec. 4-15)